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Tonight I want to share with you a fine example of an Early 1970's Chronograph. Most chronographs that many people are familiar with are either quartz or automatic, but very few are hand-wound.

This is a treat for me, because the watch I am about to share is all original except for the bracelet.

Let's begin...

The name Voltaire Model No. 4005 was actually a model of watches under the auspices of Paul Perret. This particular watch is all stainless steel, with 17 Rubis (Jewels), Incabloc flat hairspring, a rotating bezel and the rare blue-panda totalizers. The watch is antimagnetic and Water-Resistance to 600ft, as it is stated on the caseback.

I believe the movement is either a Landeron 248 or the more venerable and desirable Valjoux Caliber 7733. I have yet to find out. The watch measures 38mm in diameter by 46mm in length and 18mm thick, this is one solid block of stainless steel.

Since most modern watches have gone for the retro-look,surprisingly this vintage chronograph does not look out of place.

Overall, it is slightly bigger than my 1971 Rolex 1601 DateJust at 36mm.

On Saturday night, I've introduced my newly arrived vintage Voltaire Reverse Panda Chronograph. The exciting bit of news is that the movement used in the watch is in fact, a Valjoux 7733.

Primarily due to the anti-magnetic pallet wheel that gives
the movement it's anti-magnetic properties, which is not found on the Landeron. Unlike the Landeron, the bottom pusher does not stop the chronograph split seconds.

The beat rate is 18,000 vibrations per hour with 45 hour power reserve, it has a 60 sub-seconds totalizer at 9 and 45 minutes totalizer at 3. It is a cam switched mechanism just like the rest of the 77-series of Valjoux movements.

These dual register Panda and Reverse Panda dials have increased in popularity over the past few years, because of Breitling and Tag Heuer, as prime examples.

This chronograph represents a by-gone era when hand-wound movements died a slow death, only to be rescued by Haute Horologerie (High Watchmaking) old school brands like Audemars-Piguet, Vacheron-Constantin, Patek, IWC and Jeager-LeCoultre

Even the watch technician thought the Voltaire was cool watch.

A valuable lesson:

" In my opinion, is not about how much the worth in value or how much I've spend that counts. It's the appreciation and enjoyment factor that makes collecting such a wonderful hobby."

I do apologize for the low quality images taken due to the fact that my Samsung Tab E-Lite has only a 2 Megapixel Camera built-in.